EL SEGUNDO, Calif., June 25, 2024 — Sift, the first unified observability platform for hardware sensor data, today announced it has raised $17.5 million in Series A funding led by GV (Google Ventures). This round brings Sift’s total funding to $25 million and will be used to accelerate the development of its platform, expand its team, and support customers across the full hardware development lifecycle.

Sift’s platform empowers engineers to ingest, analyze, and act on machine data in real-time, enabling them to accelerate development, conduct efficient reviews, and ensure reliable operation of complex machines. The company’s customers include pioneers in aerospace, aviation, defense, energy, and transportation, such as Astranis, Astrolab, K2 Space, Mach Industries, Parallel Systems, and True Anomaly.

“At GV, we’re always on the lookout for companies tackling critical challenges in industries undergoing rapid transformation. Sift is doing exactly that for the hardware innovation space,” said Crystal Huang, General Partner at GV. “Their unified observability platform is the missing piece that leading machine builders need to turn troves of sensor data into actionable insights and accelerate development. We’re excited to partner with the Sift team as they set a new standard for how groundbreaking hardware is developed and operated.”

“The complexity of modern machines has outpaced the tools engineers use to build and operate them, leading to costly delays, preventable failures, and a ceiling on innovation,” said Sift CEO and Co-Founder Karthik Gollapudi. “At Sift, our mission is to empower the pioneers building the future by providing them with the first observability platform purpose-built for hardware development. This funding will allow us to accelerate our product roadmap and provide even greater value to our customers as they push the boundaries of what’s possible.”

With the Series A funding, Sift will continue to scale its infrastructure, build out its manufacturing automation suite, enhance its platform with AI/ML capabilities, and deliver more ways for customers to identify and recover from anomalies quickly. The company will also expand its team across engineering, product, sales, and customer success.

Jeff Dexter, Sr. Director of Software at Astranis Space, shared “with Sift’s advanced observability stack, we’re automating much of the manual data review process to increase reliability while accelerating development. Their platform will be a critical tool in our mission to deliver reliable, cost-effective internet to those who need it most.”

For more information about Sift and its unified observability platform, visit https://www.siftstack.com/.

About Sift

Sift is the first unified observability platform for hardware sensor data, empowering engineers to accelerate development, conduct efficient reviews, and ensure reliable operation of complex machines. Founded by former SpaceX engineers, Sift is headquartered in El Segundo, CA. To learn more, visit https://www.siftstack.com/.

SOURCE Sift

ATLANTA, June 25, 2024 — CereTax, the next-generation sales tax solution, today announced a $9 million financing led by S3 Ventures, with participation from Wild Basin Investments and Leaders Fund.

CereTax revolutionizes sales and use tax automation by combining the modernization of a true cloud solution with a relationship-first team of indirect tax experts. Unlike older tax systems plagued by long implementations, inflexibility, and scalability limits, CereTax provides a modern solution that meets the high demands of today’s businesses with ease. This year, CereTax’s revenue has more than tripled year-over-year while enabling 20+ channel partners.

“Sales and use tax determination and compliance is complex and burdensome,” said Aaron Perman, Partner at S3 Ventures. “The legacy solutions used by the vast majority of enterprises struggle to handle the complexity and scale of modern business, and errors can result in significant tax liabilities and penalties. We are excited to partner with CereTax for the long haul as they build the first new enterprise SaaS platform for indirect tax in twenty years.”

“With CereTax Sales Tax, we’ve seen a dramatic reduction in time spent on manual processes. The new system has truly streamlined our operations,” Lina Pinskaya, Controller of Ideal Living. “Having a knowledgeable support team made all the difference. They were responsive to our specific questions and helped us feel supported throughout the transition and after.”

With the new funding, CereTax will further invest in product innovation and supporting customers and partners. Key early hires to scale the company and grow the business include Dario Salas Machado as Vice President of Finance, bringing over 15 years of finance and business expertise, and Marni Burger as Vice President of Marketing, with over 15 years of experience in B2B software and SaaS marketing.

CereTax is also excited to announce the addition of Robert Alvarez to the board of directors. With a proven track record at companies like BigCommerce, Robert’s expertise in scaling high-growth technology businesses will be invaluable to CereTax’s future endeavors. Robert’s deep understanding of financial strategy and operational excellence will enhance CereTax’s commitment to innovation and customer success.

“By growing the leadership team and expanding the board, CereTax is strategically positioning itself for a new era of growth and innovation,” said Mike Sanders, CereTax’s CEO and Co-Founder. “Their combined expertise and vision will be invaluable as we continue our relentless focus on customer and partner success while achieving substantial growth in the years to come.”

About CereTax

CereTax is a next-generation sales tax automation solution that leverages the latest advancements in cloud technology to revolutionize how a sales tax calculation platform operates. CereTax processes millions of transactions per month for some of the largest enterprises, enabling companies to do business reliably and in compliance. CereTax was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Learn more about CereTax at https://www.ceretax.com/.

About S3 Ventures

Founded in 2005, S3 Ventures leads Seed, Series A, and Series B investments in Business Technology, Digital Experiences, and Healthcare Technology. Backed by a single limited partner — a highly philanthropic family with a multi-billion-dollar foundation — S3 Ventures empowers visionary founders with the patient capital and true resources required to grow extraordinary, high-impact companies. Learn more about S3 Ventures at https://www.s3vc.com/.

SOURCE CereTax

New Product Leverages Generative AI While Preserving Traditional Research Workflow

SANTA MONICA, Calif.   , June 25, 2024 — Upword, an emerging knowledge management solutions provider, announced today the launch of its AI-powered research companion tool as well as the completion of a $3 million pre-seed funding round. The research companion uses Generative AI to transform how research is conducted and managed by leveraging data provided by the user. The tool delivers a personalized experience that adheres to traditional research methods while significantly boosting productivity.

The new tool’s public launch follows a successful beta that engaged 30,000 users and 1,000 paying customers. Upword was designed for researchers and students, but among beta users, 50% of paid subscriptions were professionals outside of academia, suggesting broad appeal across industries.  The beta was featured as Product of the Day and listed as one of the top AI products of the year on Product Hunt.

Researchers, marketers, analysts, academics, and students often require highly tailored and context-specific outputs that general AI chatbots struggle to provide. Despite AI’s potential benefits, such as summarization, organization, and knowledge management, 9 out of 10 knowledge workers were disappointed with chatbot outcomes for “important research.”

Upword addresses these concerns by leveraging AI’s capabilities while ensuring high levels of personalization, tailoring, and contextualization for important research. Unlike traditional AI chatbots, Upword operates through a sophisticated interface designed specifically for research management. This interface includes:

• AI Managed Content Library: Leveraging advanced auto-tagging and vectorizing technologies, the library automatically organizes and classifies the user’s research documents, making it significantly easier to locate and utilize information. 
• AI Co-pilot: Leveraging multiple leading large language models (LLMs) like Open AI, Anthropic, and Gemini, the co-pilot enhances professional content, providing tailored suggestions and support that adapt to the user’s specific needs. Unlike chatbots, it continuously learns about the user’s requirements and research, ensuring more tailored and context-based results.
• User-Centric Research Experience: Upword is designed to put the user at the center of the research process and ensures an intuitive step-by-step experience. The user-friendly interface allows for seamless navigation through research activities, keeping the user in control.
• Upword Fetch: This feature harnesses AI search engines and content recommendation engines to suggest materials from the web and the user’s library that could be used for each project based on the user’s project description. – The feature will roll out to all Upword users in the coming weeks.

Additionally, Upword has “Quick AI tools” like translation and summarization to help with daily tasks. 

Upword offers professionals the tools they need to enhance their work while maintaining the familiar structure of traditional research methods, ensuring users can fully leverage AI’s potential without compromising the integrity of their work.

In parallel to its product launch, Upword also announced today the completion of its $3 million pre-seed round from prominent investors, including Telefonica (Wayra X), Go Ahead Ventures, and Goodwater Capital. The funding will be used for further development of the new product as well as expansion into additional markets. 

“For researchers, the advancement of AI has had little effect on the way they work,” said Roee Barak, Founder and CEO of Upword. “The rigorous, step-by-step methodology that defines research has made AI chatbots overwhelming and often inconvenient. While studying in law school, my vision was to build productivity tools that kept me in control, accommodating the need for nuance and rigor in scholarly work while providing the benefits of generative AI. Upword was the result. Now, students, academics, and professionals across many industries have access to a tool that delivers on the promise of GenAI.”

About Upword
Upword provides AI-powered research and knowledge management solutions that enhance productivity and efficiency while maintaining traditional research methods. Leveraging state-of-the-art Generative AI, Upword offers tailored and context-specific support to help organize knowledge more efficiently. Headquartered in Israel and California, Upword has raised over $3 million from prominent investors, including Telefonica. For more information, please visit www.upword.ai.

Media Contact
Elya Cowland
Gova10 for Upword
[email protected]
+972 58-582-9494

SOURCE Upword

New funding to scale automotive virtual sensors that replace hardware, add advanced features and enable car-centric apps as the industry shifts to software-defined vehicles.

DARMSTADT, Germany, June 25, 2024 — COMPREDICT, a pioneer in AI-powered solutions for software-defined vehicles, today announced a $15M Series B funding round led by Woven Capital, Toyota’s growth fund, with continued support from existing investor Shift4Good. This infusion of capital will enable COMPREDICT to expand its global footprint, diversify its product offerings, and enhance large-scale deployment capabilities. By embedding its virtual sensors into more vehicles, COMPREDICT aims to unlock more data and enable any automaker to create new functionalities, enhance driving assistance systems, and boost revenue streams, all while improving the overall driver experience.

“We are thrilled to welcome Woven Capital as an investor. This is an exciting time for us as we approach large-scale series implementation with major partners and customers worldwide,” said Dr. Stéphane Foulard, co-founder and CEO of COMPREDICT. “Our team is well positioned to rapidly expand and provide automakers with valuable data-driven insights. We remain committed to advancing cutting-edge AI technologies in the automotive industry and help automakers realize their vision for vehicle-centric apps and digital services that deliver value to consumers.”

Traditional vehicle health and usage monitoring requires companies to add extra hardware and build extensive data pools across fleets and digital twin cloud infrastructures. COMPREDICT’s innovative approach is purely software-based and uses readily available vehicle signals to create meaningful insights directly in-vehicle. The company’s highly efficient AI process turns existing vehicle data into virtual sensor insights for a wide range of applications, including predictive maintenance, driver coaching and car health certificates, all while informing improved car design to better meet real-world conditions and usage. These insights provide significant value to automakers, consumers and partners alike.

As the automotive industry transitions to software-defined vehicle architectures, the computing power and software content of vehicles are set to grow rapidly. This shift will underpin advanced features like predictive maintenance, smart mobility, enhanced driving and comfort systems, and consumer-centric apps. McKinsey forecasts that the automotive software market will reach $80 billion in 2030.

“By using existing onboard vehicle signals and data to generate AI-based vehicle insights, COMPREDICT has demonstrated the vast potential of virtual sensors, a critical layer in the software-defined vehicle stack, reducing costs and unlocking revenue-generating digital services,” said Betty Bryant, Woven Capital principal who is joining the COMPREDICT board. “We are thrilled to back the COMPREDICT team, a company that is uniquely combining data science and vehicle engineering expertise to bring new innovative capabilities, such as predictive maintenance for next-gen vehicles.”

“COMPREDICT is a key enabler of the automotive industry’s digital transformation, boosting predictive maintenance capabilities,” added Matthieu de Chanville, partner at Shift4Good. “Since our initial investment in 2022, the team’s progress has been remarkable. We look forward to continuing our support for their growth.”

About COMPREDICT
COMPREDICT provides innovative solutions for sustainable mobility. By developing virtual sensors for mobility, COMPREDICT enables automakers around the world to optimize vehicle design, usage and maintenance while delivering greater value to customers via new features and lower cost. Learn more at compredict.ai.

About Woven Capital
Woven Capital is Toyota’s growth fund dedicated to realizing the promise of mobility — how people, goods, information and energy can move. Our global team of investors connects the world’s most promising innovators with the world’s most trusted automotive brand. Founded in 2021, we are investing nearly $800 million in startups that create new ways to connect cities, advance automation, harness and store energy, further electrification, and make our vehicles smarter. Learn more at woven.vc.

About Shift4Good
Shift4Good is an impact venture capital fund focused on the decarbonization of the transportation sector. It aims to invest in the transport for goods and people, which alone accounts for around 20% of global CO2 emissions. Backed by top-notch institutional financial investors, but also major mobility players, Shift4Good has built a unique model to identify and support the best entrepreneurs, those capable of developing and deploying the radical innovations required by the climate emergency. Shift4Good has offices in Paris and Singapore. Learn more at shift4good.com.

Contact:
Vijaylaxmi Sharma
[email protected]
[email protected]
+496151 3844614

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2442790/Compredict_GmbH_1.jpg
Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2442789/Compredict_GmbH_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Compredict GmbH

DENVER, June 25, 2024 — INVI MindHealth, a pioneering mental health technology company, proudly announces the successful close of its $1.5 million Series Seed funding round. The proceeds from this funding round will be strategically utilized to enhance the current INVI Mindhealth application, driving innovation to improve user experience and the integration of content from experts on a range of mental health topics and solutions. Funds will also help to create a robust dashboard tool for leaders called “Overwatch,” so leaders can monitor and support the wellbeing of their teams.

“INVI MindHealth was started after multiple SEAL Team teammates of mine took their lives,” said Jonathan Wilson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “The Veteran suicide rate was moving in the wrong direction and the current medical model felt ill-equiped and overwhelmed in addressing this epidemic. Realizing that mental health challenges were not agnostic to just Veterans but impact almost everyone, we felt an obligation to do something about it. This investment will accelerate the development of our innovative mental health platform,” Wilson said.

INVI MindHealth has partnered with first responders and government agencies, such as a Los Angeles based Special Tactics Team. Team leaders and 35 SWAT officers are leveraging the platform to enhance understanding of their mental health, improve overall wellbeing, and provide appropriate overwatch for each other. The platform will help this team mitigate the effects of high stress environments on the nervous system by offering tools and insights based on rigorous research.

In addition, INVI Mindhealth is currently conducting research to deepen the understanding of boundary-pushing mental health treatments. In collaboration with a leading university in Texas, the company is conducting a longitudinal observational pilot study involving 40 veterans with PTSD undergoing psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. The study will include clinical and neurobiological assessments, with INVI collecting biometric data through wearable devices and capturing participants’ baselines and changes induced by the psychedelic intervention focusing on heart rate variability, heart rate and sleep.

Founded in 2020 during Wilson’s studies at The University of Oxford, INVI MindHealth aims to revolutionize mental health care by utilizing predictive analytics to detect decreases in mental wellbeing. The platform combines biometrics, deep learning analytics, artificial intelligence, and human networks to offer comprehensive mental health solutions. It creates a support team to help people in need, and offers personalized solutions that address the unique challenges faced by those in high-stress professions.

INVI MindHealth’s app is available to iOS and Android users. It leverages the connectivity of the autonomic nervous system and the mind to provide actionable analysis. INVI features a unique swim buddy system that keeps you connected to your teammate and your team where you can share your MindScore™ with one buddy or your entire team. INVI sends alerts if your buddy goes dark to establish accountability and support. INVI allows you to connect your wearable devices (Apple Watch, Garmin, etc) and your Apple Health data. 

For more information, please visit www.invimh.com.

About INVI MindHealth: INVI Mindhealth’s mission is to save lives by making the invisible visible. The company is dedicated to transforming mental health care through innovative technology and personalized support. By leveraging advanced analytics and expert insights, INVI Mindhealth can empower individuals and teams to achieve optimal mental health and resilience.

SOURCE INVI Mindhealth

Series A co-led by Novartis Venture Fund and Delos Capital, with participation from OrbiMed, Insight Partners, J.P. Morgan Life Sciences Private Capital, CRISPR Therapeutics, Innovation Endeavors, Invus, Arc Ventures, and Deep Insight

Company is developing a new class of genomic medicines based on naturally occurring genetic elements that may be delivered using mRNA and lipid nanoparticles to precisely and durably insert entire genes into safe harbor sites in the human genome

Company is focused on advancing medicines that can be redosed and titrated with curative intent for patients suffering from genetic diseases, cancer, and autoimmune conditions

BOSTON, June 25, 2024 — Exsilio Therapeutics (“Exsilio”), a biotechnology company developing genomic medicines for a broad range of diseases, announced today its emergence from stealth with $82 million in Series A financing. The funding was co-led by Novartis Venture Fund and Delos Capital, with participation from OrbiMed, Insight Partners, J.P. Morgan Life Sciences Private Capital, CRISPR Therapeutics, Innovation Endeavors, Invus, Arc Ventures, and Deep Insight. Exsilio was seed-funded by OrbiMed.

Exsilio will use proceeds from the financing to advance its genomic medicines based on naturally occurring, programmable genetic elements that can precisely insert new genes into a cell through mRNA intermediates. Exsilio’s interdisciplinary team has built a platform that combines predictive in silico modeling and wet lab-based experimentation to discover and engineer such elements for integration of therapeutic genes into safe harbor sites. Because Exsilio’s medicines are encoded in mRNA, they can be delivered using existing lipid nanoparticle (LNP) platforms that are safe, efficient, scalable, and cost-effective, and can be redosed and titrated with curative intent.

“mRNA-based medicines allow for a software-like approach to creating new medicines,” said Tal Zaks, M.D., Ph.D., who serves as Exsilio’s Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer. “Exsilio’s approach leverages the advantages of mRNA and goes a step further by encoding genes that integrate permanently, offering the possibility of curative rather than transient effects. The ability to insert whole genes with a repeatable and titratable approach should allow us to treat genetic diseases irrespective of the patient’s individual mutation. This financing will help us advance our genomic medicines and select promising lead candidates so that we can bring much-needed new options to patients.”

“We were captivated by Exsilio’s genomic medicines approach that stands to enable large-gene integration in a safe and redosable manner,” said Aaron Nelson, Managing Director at Novartis Venture Fund and Exsilio Board Member. “Through this significant investment, Exsilio will be able to select and advance promising candidates for difficult-to-treat diseases.”

“We believe that the vision of safely and durably integrating therapeutic genes into a patient’s genome requires using RNA-based payloads that can leverage clinically validated non-viral gene delivery technologies,” said Henry Chen, Managing Partner of Delos Capital and Exsilio Board Member. “Exsilio is bringing together a singular group of people to help establish this new pillar of genomic medicine.”

About Exsilio Therapeutics
Exsilio Therapeutics is developing genomic medicines that can be delivered in lipid nanoparticles to durably and safely treat a broad range of diseases, including genetic diseases, cancer, and autoimmune conditions. Exsilio’s technology is based on naturally occurring genetic elements that can precisely insert new genes into a cell through RNA intermediate templates. Exsilio uses predictive in silico modeling and wet lab-based experimentation to engineer such elements for precise insertion of therapeutic genes into safe harbor sites of disease-relevant cells. Because Exsilio’s medicines are encoded in mRNA, they can be delivered using validated, non-viral delivery platforms that are safe, efficient, scalable, and cost-effective, and that allow redosing to effect with a curative intent. For more information, follow us on LinkedIn.

SOURCE Exsilio

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 24, 2024 — Heyday Health, the nation’s first virtual-forward value-based care provider focused on Medicare and dual-eligible patients, announced today that it has raised $12.5 million from Gradient (Google), Lionbird, a large national payor, Great Oaks Capital, and Kate Ryder, CEO of Maven Clinic.

The funding will enable Heyday to expand its mission to provide Medicare and dual-eligible patients with high-quality, accessible, and compassionate care from the comfort of their homes.

Heyday’s virtual-forward model starts with a comprehensive physical, behavioral, and social assessment conducted in patients’ homes, or wherever they call home. Every patient enjoys 24/7 access to a personalized care team comprised of a physician, a nurse practitioner, and a Health Ally that works with them to design and manage care plans that strive to keep them happy, healthy, and at home.

Heyday care teams work closely with family members and caregivers who serve as critical partners in optimizing patient outcomes while sharing the burden of caretaking with a professional team. Heyday’s care team also includes behavioral health and clinical pharmacy providers who help manage behavioral health conditions and complex medication regimens.

Purpose-built technology powers Heyday’s care model, enabling frictionless access to video visits for patients and streamlined market operations for its in-home and virtual care teams.

Heyday has been delivering on the Triple Aim since its inception, generating exceptional quality (4+ Star performance 3 years running), patient experience (NPS 85), and lowering costs by reducing inpatient admissions and ER visits.

With this funding, Heyday is expanding into the Cincinnati/Dayton area in Southwest Ohio and the Louisville area in Kentucky, and has positioned itself for long-term success.

“Our mission is to democratize access to the type of care we want our own families to enjoy,” says Founder and CEO Bobby Shady. “We set out to do this not only in major metropolitan areas, but starting in geographies that could offer a model for the rest of the nation. Three years onward, Heyday has enjoyed the privilege of caring for thousands of patients and is humbled by the opportunity to expand our impact.”

Founded in 2020 by Mr. Shady, Dr. Nupur Mehta, and Sarafina Midzik, Heyday has been caring for patients in Ohio since 2021 and Kentucky since 2023. Heyday is excited for this next phase in its organizational journey.

About Heyday Health

Heyday Health is a virtual-forward value-based care provider focused on Medicare and dual-eligible patients. Heyday provides in-home and virtual care to complex patients with a personalized, multidisciplinary, and accessible care team that takes the time to get to know them and their lived experiences. Knowing that the majority of health outcomes are determined outside of the walls of healthcare settings, Heyday goes to the source – patients’ daily lives.

For more information, visit www.heydayhealth.com

SOURCE Heyday Health

HUNTINGTON, N.Y., June 24, 2024 — Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical is pleased to announce the successful completion of participant enrollment for the clinical trial of its innovative therapeutic, SJP-002C in partnership with Duke University. This milestone marks a significant step forward in the development of an effective and affordable treatment with the potential to reduce symptoms and tissue damage from Upper Respiratory Infections (URIs)/COVID.

Key Highlights:

• Full Enrollment Achieved: The trial protocol called for 150 participants, and we are proud to report that this target has been met. Initially, recruitment was slow with only 15 participants. However, after opening two additional sites, we successfully recruited 135 participants within five months, demonstrating Sen-Jam’s capability to mobilize resources and commitment to advancing this crucial research.
• Safety Profile: To date, no serious side effects have been associated with SJP-002C, putting Sen-Jam into a position to achieve our primary endpoint of safety for this innovative combination product.
• Mechanism of Action: SJP-002C acts as a multi-targeted anti-inflammatory with antiviral capabilities that are effective against various viral strains. This makes our product suitable for a broad population seeking to reduce symptoms and prevent respiratory infections from advancing to pneumonia and cytokine storm.
• Patent Protection: SJP-002C is patent-protected, ensuring exclusive rights to market this novel therapeutic globally.
• Manufacturing Plans: Our partner KVK-Tech, is currently scheduled to submit FDA manufacturing batches by Q4-2024. Our goal is to offer this treatment at a significantly lower cost than existing options such as Paxlovid, making it accessible to a larger patient population without creating a multitude of drug-drug interactions.
• Investor Appeal: With a market opportunity valued at $35 billion for respiratory infections and $16 billion for COVID therapeutics, SJP-002C is poised to capture significant market share. Its unique combination of safety, efficacy, and affordability positions it as a highly attractive investment opportunity with substantial growth potential.
• Next Steps: With the anticipation of positive results, we plan to seek FDA approval to commence Phase 3 clinical trials.

“We are thrilled to reach this important milestone in our clinical trial for SJP-002C,” said Jim Iversen, Co-Founder and CEO of Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical. “Our ability to rapidly enroll participants and the absence of serious side effects are promising indicators of the potential impact of this treatment. We are committed to advancing this therapy to provide a safe, effective, and affordable solution for patients worldwide.”

Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical is actively seeking retail investors, investment partners and strategic collaborations to support the Phase 3 clinical trials and global licensing for commercialization of SJP-002C. They also are advancing ten other novel assets with three of them at or approaching Phase 2 clinical trial work. Their platform aims to revolutionize the way the world treats inflammation and the way the pharmaceutical industry treats humanity.

About Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical: Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical is a drug innovation company dedicated to improving societal wellbeing by developing novel solutions for pain and inflammation. The company’s mission is to forge a new path to better health by creating safe and efficacious therapies for some of the world’s most widespread health challenges. Sen-Jam’s innovative approach and dedication to responsible drug development position it at the forefront of life-enhancing pharmaceutical breakthroughs.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical
Christine Leonard
781-913-1902
[email protected] 

SOURCE Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical

The company will also adopt a new name to better communicate its capabilities as an HR SaaS platform for the Supply Chain

NEW YORK, June 24, 2024 — Wilya, formerly known as Gig and Take, an innovative B2B SaaS company transforming traditional HR practices in the manufacturing and supply chain sectors, announced today the successful close of a $4 million seed funding round. The round was led by Ironspring Ventures, with participation from Schematic Ventures, Plug & Play Ventures, Iron Prairie Ventures, Motivate Ventures, and 25Madison. This funding milestone underscores both the growing recognition of Wilya’s cutting-edge approach to flexible work and skills digitization, and the company’s rapid commercial growth.

In addition to the funding news, Wilya is excited to announce its rebranding. “We are taking on the #1 issue for manufacturers through a novel technology solution, informed by our backgrounds in HR and tech,” said Rahil Siddiqui, Founder and CEO of Wilya. “Wilya offers a unique combination of integrated tools to introduce and manage closed pools of skilled, frontline industrial workers, and we are eager to expand on our early successes with this fresh capital and exciting new partners. Our new name also better reflects the increasing capabilities of the SaaS platform as we help our customers be more strategic in scaling up and down their skilled labor in a volatile economy.”

With this new injection of capital, Wilya will accelerate the development and deployment of its software solutions, further expand its market reach, and add product features to address the unique human capital challenges in the supply chain.

“Labor shortages remain a critical issue within US manufacturing, and Wilya’s platform is enabling manufacturers across the US to make great gains in productivity and efficiency by modernizing how factories identify skill sets and deploy their existing workforce,” said Ty Findley, Co-Founder & General Partner at Ironspring Ventures, who will join the Wilya board. “With depth in HR and manufacturing, this could not be a stronger team to understand these challenges. And when paired with impressive 400% commercial growth over the past year, we couldn’t be more excited to partner with Rahil and team.”

Wilya’s intuitive SaaS platform is tailor-made for the needs of frontline supervisors in manufacturing, warehousing and distribution industries. The software provides a ‘skills operating system’ which can be operationalized to facilitate efficient allocation of skills and resources while promoting a more flexible approach to work. With Wilya, companies can better manage and increase productivity of existing full-time labor and introduce flex-worker pools – reducing the cost and complexity of expensive contract workers and forced overtime.

Nearly 50% of manufacturers say they have turned down work due to lack of labor, and experts predict factories will be short more than two million workers by 2030, costing $1 trillion in productivity. With recent US legislation, including the CHIPS Act, IIJA, and IRA, spurring manufacturing activity across the country, it is clear new solutions are needed to address labor challenges in this sector. 

“With so many highly-skilled workers retiring and younger employees pursuing roles that provide flexibility of when, how much, and what they work on, the pixelated workforce has officially arrived in the Supply Chain function,” said Andy Biladeau, Chief Transformation Officer, Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM). “Fortunately, Wilya has developed an elegant solution to help manufacturers and distributors easily track and deploy real-time their cross-skilled workers in this dynamic, ever-evolving labor environment.” SHRM Labs is an investor in Wilya.

About Wilya

Formerly known as Gig and Take, Wilya was founded with the mission to revolutionize the manufacturing sector by enabling flexible workforce solutions. The company was born out of firsthand experience with the rigid and often inefficient workforce structures prevalent in the industry. The founding team, leveraging their extensive background in manufacturing and HR, identified the need for a technology that could help factories manage a flexible workforce efficiently. Wilya’s innovative SaaS software platform aims to create a win-win situation for both factories and workers by facilitating a more dynamic and engaged workforce. The company’s dedication to transforming traditional HR practices has been recognized with multiple accolades, including the prestigious MHI Innovation Award.

For more information about Wilya, visit https://www.wilya.com 

SOURCE Gig and Take